Brazil players celebrate after winning a match against USA in the second round of Men's U21 World Championship in Turkey

Ankara, Turkey, August 28, 2013 – The four teams coming from preliminary Pool D Russia, Brazil, France and Italy made their way to the quarterfinals of the FIVB Men's U21 World Championship along with two teams from Pool A Turkey and India and two from Pool B Iran and Argentina making the line up of the quarterfinal of the competition scheduled to be held in Ankara on Friday.

On Wednesday, giants Italy and France fought for two hours each against favourites Serbia and mighty Canada to make their way to the quarters after ground breaking tiebreakers in Izmir, while Brazil took over resistant USA after a tough face off. Russia had to overcome early spirited Tunisian in an easier match.

Hosts Turkey and Iran continued their superb action as they easily continued their run of five matches without defeat against Egypt and Japan respectively in Ankara to be the only teams to achieve that. Argentina and India were promoted to the quarterfinals after they were too good for China and Japan.

Thursday will feature the start of the classification 17 to 20th round robin tournament where Morocco meet Estonia and Venezuela face Rwanda in Izmir, while the second round teams will take a rest before the start of the quarterfinal schedule on Friday.

In the quarters Iran line up against Brazil, while Argentina battle it out against Italy. India meets Russia and Turkey fight against France. All the matches will be in Ankara.

With a fantastic performance and impressive 30 points scored, Alan Souza led Brazil to 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-18, 25-22) victory over USA in the second round of the FIVB Men's U21 World Championship at Ataturk Hall in Izmir.

Souza with the tournament's third best scoring performance so far, did everything in the game and not only coming as match best scorer but also having emotional effect on his colleagues. He also had 5 dying blocks and 1 ace service in his tally.

USA's opposite Benjamin Patch was his team best scorer with 19 points followed by Thomas Jaeschke 13 points.

Brazil changed their strategy and used the floating tactical service to make a pressure upon USA players beside making a wide blocking dominance of 11-4 and also 6-2 in ace services which played a great role in the match.

"Our service and the amazing Souza performance were behind the victory," says Brazil coach Leo. "I think we were more emotionally balanced during the match. From this stage, the competition becomes very important."

Iran v Egypt 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-11)

Iran defeated Egypt by 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-11) to become the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals in Ankara. The Asian team took 74 minutes to seal their superiority over the North African side who now have to make their way to Izmir and fight for the ninth place.

Successful performance in offence gave the initial advantage to Egypt, but then they started making too many mistakes and Iran gradually took control of the scoreboard to claim the first set by 25-21. The second set started out as a closely contested affair, but Egypt continued to commit excessive errors and allowed Iran to break away again and finish it off at 25-20. In set three the Iranians stepped up their blocking efforts to sweep their opponents by the impressive 25-11 and claim the victory.

Captain Javad Hosseinabadi contributed 11 points to Iran’s victory to become the top scorer of the match. His Egyptian counterpart Islam Abdelkader and Mohamed Masoud scored 8 points each for their team.

Javad Hosseinabadi, captain of Iran said: “Egypt are a good team. As we were the winners of our pool, I think they started the match today with extra concentration. They took extra risks in the game and it pushed them to make more mistakes. So, it became an easy match for us later and we won by 3-0.”

Italy v Serbia 3-2 (21-25, 25-19, 25-21, 28-30, 15-5)

Outstanding Italian team played their best in the tournament to overcome the favourites, Serbia in grueling five-setter 3-2 (21-25, 25-19, 25-21, 28-30, 15-5) in Izmir.

With the victory the Italian team who were fourth in their preliminary pool D qualifies to the quarterfinal, while Serbia who lead their corresponding pool C will play for the 9 to 16 positions.

Among other main causes for the win, the brilliant performance of the Italian opposite Luigi Randazzo comes as the main factor as he was the match scorer with 28 points including 5 impressive dying blocks and 5 ace services. He was followed by the emerging outside hitter Ferdinando Della Volpe who scored 20 points.

From the Serbian side Uros Kovacevic led the scorers with 19 points.

"We were in a tough situation before coming to Turkey because few days before the championship we had to change the strategy. Our first opposite was injured. It was unexpected and not easy for us. Our main point was not to change the team after the two matches that we lost. It was a big motivation to the players. So, they started to play better and better and now they are fully self confident." Italy coach Marco Bonitta said

Argentina v China 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 29-27)

Argentina managed to qualify for the quarterfinals after a 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 29-27) victory over China in a round-of-16 match in Ankara. The South Americans will face Italy in their battle for a semifinal spot, while the Asian side will move to Izmir to fight for the 9th place in the final ranking.

Gonzalo Quiroga’s great overall performance helped Argentina win the first two sets. In set three China improved their attacking and blocking and despite some productive spiking from Argentina’s Pablo Koukartsev were able to maintain a lead and win it. The fourth set was by far the most interesting one. China took the lead through the most part of the set. Argentina caught up to prompt a dramatic ending. After 23-24 they saved three set points for China to eventually overcome the strong opponent and settle for a 29-27 final score.

With 10 points coming from the last set alone, Pablo Koukartsev piled up a total of 25 points on his tally to become the best scorer of the match. Teammate Gonzalo Quiroga added 23 to Argentina’s victory. Tingwei Yan was most prolific for China with 15 points.

Di Zhang, coach of China mentioned “We had our chance today, but we could not use it and we could not win. The players tried hard, but we could not do it.

Russia v Tunisia 3-0 (25-23, 25-15, 25-21)

Russia stopped the early Tunisian challenge to win in straight sets 25-23, 25-15, 25-21 in Izmir. With this victory Russia qualified to the quarterfinal for the top 8 positions, while Tunisia plays for the 9 to 16 positions.

As usual the Russian opposite Victor Poletaev was the team scorer with 16 points including 3 ace services and 2 dying blocks, followed by team captain Egor Feoktistov 12 points.

Tunisia's opposite Adam Oueslati led his team scorers with 10 points followed by Malek Chekir 8 points.

"Russia played very well and deserved to win. We didn’t come here to win the World Championship. We came here to improve our style of playing, performance and the team work. For us it was a big surprise to play against Russia. However, it was a strong game. I believe, we managed to play against them." Tunisia coach Mohamed Mounir Gara said.

India v Japan 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-20)

India upset Japan in the all-Asian clash in Ankara. The squad around coach T.C. Jothish stayed on their winning path and qualified for the quarterfinals with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-20) straight-set victory.

Kumar Sohan was the top scorer of the match with 13 points for India while Yuki Ishikawa’s 11 points made him Japan’s most productive player of the game.

T.C. Jothish, coach of India was very happt to qualify to the quarterfinal. “My players started the match very concentrated. We did not have the option to give the chance to Japan to play. If we gave them this chance, it would be very hard for us to win this match. This was our plan. All my players played well.” He said.

France v Canada 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 23-25, 15-10)

France recovered in the right time to cruise past Canada in epic five setter 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 23-25, 15-10) in Izmir. With two hours of fighting between the two opponents, the match was going here and their till the French players came with all goods in the tiebreak to win the tough match and qualify for the quarterfinals in Ankara, while Canada will stay in Izmir to play for classification matches 9 to 16.

French captain Clevenot Trevor finished as match scorer with 20 points including 4 stuff blocks followed by teammate outside hitter Thibault Rossard 18 points. Jimenez Demyanenko contributed 14 points for Canadian team as best scorer of his side.

France team played their best in the tiebreak using the spike service of Thibault to lead 4-1 before they turned court at 8-4. It was easy for the French team to continue the same rhythm although some resistance from Canadian team and win 15-10.

"It was the most important match. We know it was not easy to win. We are very happy to win this game. Even Canada lost the game, but I want to congratulate them, they played well tonight. It was a good fighting for each team." France coach Stephane Faure said.

Turkey v Mexico 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-18)

Turkey shut out Mexico by 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-18) in Ankara’s last match. The home heroes pleased their fans on the stands at Baskent Volleyball Hall with a speedy victory that will allow them to stay in their capital through the rest of the tournament and compete among the top eight teams.

Captain Baturalp Burak Gungor led his Turkish team to a fast 25-14 in the first set. As many as five aces helped the home side maintain their domination through the second set and win it by 25-15. The Mexicans raised their heads in the first half of the third set, but between the two technical time-outs Turkey once again established control to rush to a final 25-18 in the set and seal their spot in the quarterfinals.

Roberto Rincon scored 15 points for Mexico to become the top scorer of the match. Baturalp Burak Gungor was the winning team’s best scorer with 12 points.

“It was an easier match than we expected. But it was a very important match that opens the doors to quarterfinals. I am glad that we succeeded in opening that door. My players are aware of everything that they need to do on the court. They continue the battle...” Umit Hizal, coach of Turkey said.